Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety
Bonding
Changes to equipment utilization rates still being studied. DRMS is doing a survey in Colorado to understand similarities with the national utilization rates from Equipment Watch Cost Reference Guide.
DRMS is planning to present issues and process at November MLRB meeting.
DRMS is moving forward with revisions to the MLRB Hard Rock, Metal, and...
Budget talks. On November 1, Governor Hickenlooper will submit his final budget to fund state activities for the coming fiscal year. He will explain that proposal to the Joint Budget Committee (JBC) on November 16. Of course, by that time a new governor will have been elected who might have different priorities. Nevertheless, this will be the budget the JBC...
CMA’s Health and Safety Committee met at Trapper Mining in Craig, Colorado on September 6. We are excited to revive this important committee as safety is a high priority in our industry. The meeting was coordinated by board member, Laura Beverage, Vice Chair for Health and Safety. Moving forward the committee will be chaired by Karl Koehler, Stephen Laramore...
CMA’s Water Quality Committee meets monthly at the CMA office. Chaired by Jimmy Boswell of Peabody Energy, the committee has addressed a number of common water quality issues that members face in permitting and enforcement contexts.Several CMA members met last month with John Swartout, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper’s Senior Policy Advisor, to express their views on these issues. The...
Office of Surface Mining and Enforcement, Western Region
Dave Berry, Regional Director of the Office of Surface Mining and Enforcement, Western Region, updated the committee about his agency’s focus on the overall Department of Interior reorganization efforts. At this time, the reorganization will create six regions in the western region of coordinated agency efforts, and 12 regions nationwide. The Department’s...
Everyone seems to be holding their breath until the November 6 election. Plans for the 2019 General Assembly, both for legislators and interest groups, hinge on which party will control the State Senate and the Governor’s office, as well as which legislators will be available to sponsor various bills. Committee chairs are determined by the majority party, as are...
Earlier this spring, the Interstate Mining Compact Commission (IMCC) selected CMAEF’s course, “All About Mining: 21st Century Mining for K-12 Educators” as the winner of its 2018 Mineral Education Award in the Public Outreach category. The IMCC is a multi-state governmental agency / organization that represents the natural resource and related environmental protection interests of its member states.
This award recognizes CMAEF’s course for achieving excellence in providing educational outreach that increases the...
The CMA Water Quality Committee meets monthly to discuss a number of state and federal water quality issues. CMA’s Water Quality Committee chairman, Jimmy Boswell of Peabody Energy, and committee members have prepared issue papers covering topics the committee has discussed for several years. Members of the committee may view these papers in the document library, here. Interested in joining the...
CMA’s Coal, Hardrock and Uranium Committees meet jointly each month and provide members the opportunity to not only keep up to date on policy issues CMA is working on, but also the chance to interact with other CMA members. We find engagement among members at CMA meetings to be especially beneficial at these meetings. At the August meeting we were fortunate to have two representatives of the EPA Region 8 in attendance. ...
August 6 was the deadline for several ballot initiatives to submit petition signatures in order to qualify for the November ballot. Seven were turned in, including two competing proposals to fund transportation, and an oil/gas setback requirement of 2500 feet, In addition, a broadly worded measure on compensation for lowering the fair market value of private property rights was turned in August 3 and a tax...